Pump Up The ANIMO! Laban LA SALLE! [Thread XXII]

This is to remind our favorite team who they truly are, and more importantly, what they are capable of. The defending champions. The De La Salle University Lady Spikers! We know you are more than what you have shown so far. You just have to dig deep and find the animo in you. We, the supporters, will keep the faith and will be with you all the way. Just give it your all each and every game. And to this, we say: P.U.T.A.! Laban La Salle! Pump Up The Animo!

Cythealee Demecillo surely did not take any shortcut on the road to being one of the grittiest and most bemedalled Lady Spikers as she had to show persistence and unwavering resolve to hurdle a collegiate career fraught with overwhelming ordeals.

Hailing from the University of Southern Philippines Foundation coached by Cebu's famed Jordan Paca, Demecillo ended up with the Lady Spikers via the Hope-La Salle pipeline.

Challenges plagued Cyd's stay with the Lady Spikers. From serious food poisoning, to a bout of chickenpox, to a team mate's wayward elbow, to possible career-ending injury, to even losing a family, no matter the seriousness, these trials always seemed to befall Cyd at the most inopportune time possible.

Academics

From her rookie year, serving as understudy to Lady Spikers' greats Cha Cruz and Steph Mercado, up to the early part of her sophomore year; Cyd had trouble adjusting to the school's academic requirements which eventually made her ineligible to play in season 74.

Showing persistence, she buckled down to work and was able to catch up in her studies. She even made it to the Dean's List. After her initial hiccup, she became well-adjusted and academics ceased to be an issue.

Chickenpox

Then after missing season 74, barely a month before the start of season 75 and just a week before the UNIGAMES, Demecillo contracted chickenpox.

This meant quarantine away from players' dorm and missing the practices which nixed her participation in the UNIGAMES and even put to question her spot in the UAAP75 lineup. She was in danger of missing her second straight UAAP season.

Worse, a chickenpox scare gripped the team when the rookie who brought Cyd food while in quarantine showed symptoms during the UNIGAMES in Bacolod. The rookie had to be sent home to recover thereby eliminating her from consideration for the UAAP75 lineup. And those in the team who have not had chickenpox had to be vaccinated. Well, except one. One was too terrified of shots.

Cyd in all these fought to keep in shape and she eventually made the UAAP lineup despite.

"Appendicitis"

The following year, again late in the preparation for UAAP76, Cyd came down with what looked like to the PT as appendicitis which needed hospital confinement.

She was by then one of the veterans so the possibility of losing her for an extended period gave the coaches headaches. Her presence and leadership were counted upon considering the large compliment of rookies that season. Greenhorns Kim Dy, Dawn Macandili, Des Cheng and batch mates needed guidance.

Fortunately, after a few days in the hospital, it turned out to be just a case of serious food poisoning and she was soon back in training.

Battle scar

Her misfortunes did not stop there.

Hope Cyd would not mind this post calling attention to her "battle scar". It is barely noticeable, but the keen-eyed might be able to spot it under Cyd's left eye.

That scar came during a hard practice, during an extended holiday weekend, in the middle of a particularly intense and long rally, while going for the ball, she ran into a wayward elbow of a team mate. This caused a very deep, two-inch gash under her eye worthy of a boxing match which required stitches.

The team looked for a specialist physician, an ophthalmologist perhaps because of the cut's proximity to the eye, or even a plastic surgeon to maybe minimized the visible scarring. Too bad it was a holiday and the only doctor available was the resident in the ER.

Stress fractures

After the beach volleyball tournament of season 78, Cyd complained of increasing pain on her shin which MRI later showed was being caused by a stress fracture.

She had to rest, on doctor's order, to heal.

But alas, rest was not enough as it became evident later on that she was not healing fast enough for her last UAAP indoor competition, so it was decided she had to have an operation.

Her recovery made her miss the first round of UAAP78 and even when she returned, she was playing hurt the rest of the season.

Through the pain, she served as a vital cog in the campaign which reclaimed the UAAP crown.

After the UAAP season, the pain on her shin worsened.

Further MRI determined her shin developed additional stress fractures which threatened her future as a volleyball player.

An operation to reinforce her shin with a titanium implant had to be done.

F2 signed her up in the PSL even while still recovering from the operation which led to many questions as she saw only limited minutes.

The wisdom of her inclusion only became apparent in the finals of the 2016 All-Filipino Conference when she played a pivotal role in collecting Coach Ramil's very first PSL crown.

Dad

Cyd went through a lot but nothing can be more painful than when she lost her father to leukemia while she was in La Salle.

He left Cyd with just her mother and two sisters.

The resolve of the Demecillos came to fore when the family decided for Cyd to trudged along despite the grief, and despite the challenges of doing without her in running the business the father left them.

These difficulties Cyd went through were not mentioned to suggest in any way that her career was unlucky. No. Rather, her story should show how adversity developed in Cyd her grit as a player and as a person, hoping to inspire young players not to give up so easily.

Challenges are not what define her.

What define Cyd as a Lady Spiker are these:

- she became Coach Ramil's ace up his sleeve ready to be called upon in crunch time

- she won La Salle's first ever UAAP Beach Volleyball crown

- she gave La Salle four UAAP golds and four silvers making her stand out even when ranged against the other Lady Spikers greats who gave the school four golds: Cha Cruz (4 golds-1 silver-1 bronze), Mika Esperanza (4-1-1), Illa Santos (4-1-0), and Mel Gohing (4-1-0)

Cyd achieved despite.

Posted by Sir Prokorpyo

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· Maria Mikaela Esperanza
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After the heart-breaking Season 72 campaign wherein the team raced to a 13-0 start before dropping the last elimination game and getting swept in the finals, and with Kaye Martinez' plan of concentrating on the senior year of her civil engineering course instead, setters were high on Coach Ramil de Jesus' recruiting priority coming into Season 73.

He got his wish when he landed that year, not one but, two great setters one of whom was Mika Esperanza.

Coach Ramil has long been eyeing Mika ever since the other DLS Lipa setter Rhea Dimaculangan did not go to Taft. And with the other teams scrambling to get the remaining of the 2008 National Youth Team (i.e. Fajardo, Valdez, de Jesus, Lazaro, Hirotsuji, etc.) and also the seniors of NCR champions Hope Christian, little attention were being given to Esperanza and other graduating players of 2010. So, Mika went to La Salle without too much fun fare.

Mika made an immediate impact by running the team's offense on the way to winning the Lady Spikers' first PVF Inter-collegiate championship in Baguio just a few days after joining the team. And during their Japan training later that year, the Japanese coach was so impressed with her that she was invited to an extended stay for additional setter's training. Unfortunately, the school calendar did not allow her that.

During Esperanza's rookie year, UAAP S73, she orchestrated the Lady Spikers squad which featured: Cha Cruz, Steph Mercado, Jacq Alarca, Abi Marano, and Michele Gumabao. So dominant was the team that year that they did not drop a single match--on the court that is, one match (vs UE) was reversed.

It is surprising she did not get the best setter award considering the Lady Spikers was by far the best spiking team that year and instead finished a very close second behind the setter of the fourth-ranked team. This is the reason why the team started tracking the game statistics.

Mika was also a strong server, she finished a close second to team mate Jacq Alarca in the best server award category.

It was her ranking in setting, serving and blocking which made her the runaway Rookie of the Year awardee--the team's third consecutive.

What most do not know about Esperanza is she almost did not finish her rookie year. She had an untreated ACL tear which she got while still in high school and Mika did not want to go under the knife for fear of going out of condition. And with batchmate and fellow setter Kim Fajardo still serving residency, the setting duties fall squarely on Mika's shoulder.

During the warm-ups just hours before the very important semi-final match vs admu, while doing the suicide drill, Mika suddenly fell cringing in pain clutching her knee. She said she felt a pop during the change of direction. Luckily, after stretching, she said she can play.

Mika went on to set up the offense on the way to the highlight of the season where the Lady Spikers came back from 19-24 deficit in the Finals Game 2 to reclaim the crown--the first in a string of three.

The following year, with Fajardo continuing to be red-shirted to maximize the setters' playing years, Esperanza orchestrated arguably the most dominating Lady Spikers squad which faced three national teams and swept the elimination round of the UAAP on the way to second straight gold.

With the entry of Kim Fajardo the following season, Mika take on the back-up setter role, but her importance to the team did not diminish. One of the reasons behind the consistently good performance of the team was, while other teams struggled to have one, the Lady Spikers had two great setters. Both the first and the second six were competitive in practice because of the setters. And competitive practices meant the whole team improved.

There has not been another major incident with Mika's ACL injury until after her fourth playing year when playing for Air Asia in the PSL, it again popped, necessitating surgery. This made her miss UAAP S77.

In Season 78, she came back for her final year and made good on her promise to Abi Marano two years previous. This win included Mika Esperanza to that most exclusive Lady Spiker club--the "4 UAAP Gold Club".

Posted by Sir Prokorpyo
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· Kim Fajardo
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She may have disliked it; but it was clear to everyone--from the players, to the coaches, to the managers, to the school--who the rallying point of the team this season was. It was her.

It was only when she embraced her role as being the inspiration to her team mates, when everything fell into place.

When things got shaky, she took charge.

When others were starting to give up, she refused.

Coach Ramil told the senior highschoolers that they will soon realize how lucky they are to have shared the court with her, to have been able to train with her.

Those who know coach Ramil can attest that generous with his praises he is not. It is not easy to please the premier coach of the land.

So when he talks about the greatness of this player, in front of the media no less. There is little doubt that she is.

I consider myself lucky to have witnessed the triumphs and trials of the KAFtain.

From having to skip multiple seasons to being the most bemedalled Lady Spiker to date. Participating and winning medals in both indoor and beach volleyball in all of her five playing years.